From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine

Penn State Heads both Graduate and Undergraduate Program Top 25 Lists; What Should the Criteria Be?

SCDigest Editorial Staff

AMR Research started a bit of SCM collegiate controversy in 2009 when it released a list of the top supply chain university programs.

SCDigest Says:

Naturally, any sort of college ranking generates controversy. From our view, we think few observers would have place Michigan as the number 2 graduate program (apologies to the Wolverines in our audience).

What Do You Say?

That will surely continue in 2011 as Gartner, which acquired AMR in 2010, pre-announced a new set of rankings at its annual supply chain executive forum in June. Those results were included as part of an overall presentation on supply chain talent management, and a full research note on the topic is expected from Gartner soon

An important and worthwhile change in 2011 is that Gartner this year broke the rankings into US undergraduate and graduate programs. There has been a call in many business circles for more emphasis on undergraduate programs to balance the more expensive hires coming out of the top graduate programs with positions for those with just undergraduate degrees who can begin at lower levels in the organization. The 2009 list was really a ranking of just the graduate university programs.

Another change for 2011 is that, 25 graduate and undergraduate programs were ranked, versus just 19 graduate programs in 2009. This is likely both to be consistent in style to Gartner's annual top 25 company supply chain rankings, and also because more universities participated in the program this year than in 2009.

Of course, there is a great deal of subjectivity involved in such a ranking, but Gartner did its best to quantify the process. For undergraduate programs, the ranking used a weighted average of 40% for "undergraduate industry value" (mentions as a top university program or recruiting spot based on a survey, having an internship requirement, and average starting salary of graduates); 20% on sheer program size (number of professors and students); and 40% for "program scope" (how many of 11 key knowledge areas according to a Gartner framework does the program include?).

The criteria for top graduate programs were not specifically identified in the presentation, but is assumed to be similar, as the 2011 undergraduate criteria is quite similar to those used for the graduate programs in 2009. Gartner's Dana Stiffler headed up the research effort.

Penn State topped the graduate program list in 2011 as it did in 2009. PSU also ranked as the top undergraduate program.

It is unclear how participation has affected the rankings. For example, Stanford was not ranked in 2009 because it did not participate in providing data, but apparently did this year and moved to the 11th spot. That may be true for other programs in the top 25 this year but not ranked in 2009.

Additionally, programs ranked in 2009 but not making the top 25 this year (Western Michigan, Iowa State, and North Carolina State) may have not participated for 2011 or were bumped off the list (all three were near the bottom of the top 19 in 2009) as additional schools jumped into the mix.

On the undergraduate side, the rankings were as follows (no 2009 comparisons):

Gartner Top 25 Supply Chain Undergraduate Programs 2011

University

2011 Rank

Penn State

1

Georgia Tech

3

Arizona State

3

Rutgers

3

Michigan State

5

University of Texas/Austin

6

Ohio State

7.5

University of Wisconsin/Madison

7.5

Texas A&M

9.5

Tennessee

9.5

Maryland

12

Western Michigan

12

Stanford

12

Lehigh

14.5

Marquette

14.5

Syracuse

16

Indiana

19.5

South Carolina

19.5

Auburn

19.5

Texas Christian

19.5

University of Nevada/Reno

19.5

Kansas

19.5

North Texas

23

Iowa State

24.5

Rider

24.5

Of course, there are a number of schools that offer either only graduate or undergraduate degrees but not both.

Naturally, any sort of college ranking generates controversy. From our view, we think few observers would have place Michigan as the number 2 graduate program (apologies to the Wolverines in our audience). Rutgers tied for number 4? That one seems a bit surprising as well, but then we didn't see the data.

Do a web search, and you will already find a number of programs have issued press releases announcing their place in the top 25. Accurate or not (and of course, the reality is that it is not measurable, though Gartner follows a pretty good methodology), universities will want to be seen as top programs regardless.

We'd like to see some weight given to the level of actual productive research (not just academic papers) coming out of the faculty.

What is your reaction to these rankings of top 25 graduate and undergraduate supply chain programs? Anything seem out of whack to you? What criteria would you use? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.

Recent Feedback

2011-08-08

I’m biased, being a current Rutgers MBA student, but we have a new $85 million building, a council filled with leading businesses that support our supply chain program, and chairwoman Dr. Lei Lei who is absolutely incredible at her job. Add to that course offerings that span the gamut from software, logistics, strategy, project management, lean six sigma, forecasting, and a slew of 1 credit courses taught by industry executives and I’d say our rank is well deserved. Oh, and a very high internship and full time placement percentage too.

Jason Barardo
MBA Class of 2012

2011-07-20

As a non US person I would be interested to see a global post graduate and under graduate view. Would be very interesting to see how such institutions as Cranfield stack up. Also, while I am admittedly biased as an Australian, I thought it worth noting that in the recent Fresh Connection supply chain simulation the global champion in the university competition was the team from the University of Western Sydney: http://www.thefreshconnection.com.au/en/tfc-news.aspx

Scott Githens
Supply Chain Effectiveness Manager
ASI

2011-07-20

The supply chain/logistics industry is full of people that will never set foot on a four year university campus, let alone enroll in a graduate program.

I would love to see a ranking of community college supply chain/logistics programs.